But my immediate, and indeed principal object, was, a list of a few of the Rarities of the Emperor’s private collection, as well in ms. as in print.  Mr. Young placed before me much that was exquisite and interesting in the former, and splendid and creditable in the latter, department.  He begged of me to judge with my own eyes, and determine for myself; and he would then supply me with a list of what he considered to be most valuable and splendid in the collection.  Accordingly, what here ensues, must be considered as the united descriptions of my guide and myself:—­Mr. Young having composed his memoranda in the Latin language.  First, of the MANUSCRIPTS.  The Gospels; a vellum folio:—­with illuminated capitals, and thirteen larger paintings, supposed to be of the thirteenth—­but I suspect rather of the fourteenth—­century.  A Breviary ... “for the use of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy” This vellum MS. is of the fifteenth century, and was executed for the distinguished character to whom it is expressly dedicated.  This is really an elegant volume:  written in the gothic character of the period, and sprinkled with marginal and capital initial decorations.  Here are—­as usual in works of this kind, executed for princes and great men—­divers illuminations of figures of saints, of which there are three of larger size than the rest:  and, of these three, one is eminently interesting, as exhibiting a small portrait of DUKE CHARLES himself, kneeling before his tutelary saint.

Here is an exceedingly pretty octavo volume of Hours, of the fifteenth century, fresh and sparkling in its illuminations, with marginal decorations of flowers, monsters, and capriccios.  It is in the binding of the time—­the wood, covered with gilt ornaments. Office of the Virgin: a neat vellum MS. of the fourteenth century—­with ornamented capital initials and margins, and about two dozen of larger illuminations.  But the chief attraction of this MS. arises from the text having been written by four of the most celebrated Princesses of the House of Austria, whose names are inscribed in the first fly leaf.

Here is a “Boccace des Cas des Nobles” by Laurent Premier Fait—­which is indeed every where.  Nor must a sprinkle of Roman Classics be omitted to be noticed, however briefly.  A Celsus, Portions of Livy, the Metamorphosis of Ovid, Seneca’s Tragedies, the AEneid of Virgil, and Juvenal:  none, I think, of a later period than the beginning or middle of the fifteenth century—­just before the invention of printing.  Among the MSS. of a miscellaneous class, are two which I was well pleased to examine:  namely, the Funerailles des Reines de France, in folio—­adorned with eleven large illuminations of royal funerals—­and a work entitled Mayni Jasonis Juris consulti Eq.  Rom.  Caes., &c, Epitalamion, in 4to.  The latter MS. is, in short, an epithalamium upon the marriage of Maximilian